Dragon of the Line
by andres.mullerbeck
Summary: An idea I had after reading the "Ship Of The Line" challenge on TTH
1. Chapter 1

Dragon Of The Line

I don't own Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Stargate, or Pathfinder RPG.

Alexander stumbled for a moment as he found himself mid-stride outside, definitely not inside of the order ritual room any more. looking around, he appeared to be in a residential area with strangely crafted houses and horseless carriages that must be powered by some sort of fire elemental. There were a number of diminutive monsters running around, causing havoc and disturbing the citizens. He drew in a deep breath, prepared to remove the threat only to be stopped by a yell.

"Alex, stop!" shouted a voice, "they are just children, changed against their will!"

Alexander focused his senses on the creatures and realized that they were releasing an incredibly powerful feeling of transmutation magic, and so held back. He turned towards the voice and saw Willow, her eyes burning with witch-fire

"Where are we, Wills? This really doesn't look like the interstellar teleportation staging room!"

"I don't know! but finding out can wait, we need to find the source of this spell and break it before anyone is seriously hurt by it!"

"You track down the source, I'll protect you while you do."

Alexander shifted to his true form, that of a sixteen foot long, vacuum hardened, adamant scaled and clawed, fusion furnace, known as a Solar Dragon, his armor growing with him; then he quickly grabbed Willow as she started scratching a rough containment circle in the ground and loped off, having recognized a voice in the distance and wanting to reach it before its owner did something she would later regret.

As Willow was getting ready to berate Alexander for jostling her as she prepared to cast a spell she saw lieutenant Buffy come into sight getting ready to strike out at the changed victims around her and shouted out, "Buffy, stop!"

Having quickly explained what seemed to be going on in the town they found themselves in, Willow suddenly exclaimed that her initial thoughts on how they had ended up here had been proven false.

"Well, Buffy, I had initially thought that we ended up here as a result of a miscast teleportation spell, but you were supposed to be going out on a date with Liam in the capitol, so you would have been nowhere near the Interstellar Embarkation room. That means we should definitely put finding how we got here as a priority, though I believe that it probably has a connection with the general chaos occurring around us."

A few minutes later, Willow had discovered that they appeared to be possessing the bodies of, well, themselves, affixed there by the power of a mid level divinity.

"I think I can follow the traces of the spell to it's anchor, and destroying it when we find it should be relatively simple."

From there, the group proceeded to track down the source of the trouble, only to be stopped a few blocks later when Alexander once again heard a voice he recognized, this time belonging to his fiancée, Cordelia Chase.

With a roar of, "get away from my fiancée," Xander chased the hairy beast chasing Cordelia away, before turning back into his human form to fuss over her, only for her to flinch away before screaming at him.

"Harris! What the hell was that! you just… you just… Gah! Dragon! You! What is wrong with you, you freak!"

Alexander was developing a heavily hurt look at the treatment by the love of his life before Willow caught him in a hug.

"I can't feel any magic on her, that isn't your Cordy Alex, Your Cordy is still at home. Don't worry, We'll end this spell and get back."

Buffy approached Cordelia.

"Sorry about that, Miss, but you look a lot like someone we knew from home. We are tracking down the source of the spell causing this chaos. You should find a safe place until we have done so."

Cordelia insisted on accompanying them and the rest of their trip to the source was uneventful, the monsters recognizing Alexander as a far greater threat than they were. They discovered that the source of the spell was a store called 'Ethan's Costume Shop' which was locked up, but that proved no obstacle for them as Alexander easily tore the door off its hinges.

The group was confronted by the shopkeep, a middle aged British man, whom they assumed was Ethan.

"Hey now, What do you think you are doing breaking in here!"

Alexander lunged at him, picking him up by his collar and pinning him against the wall.

"What kind of man are you, doing this kind of thing to children?!"

"Just a little prank! the spell was crafted in such a way that those under its thrall would be unharmed!"

"Yeah, the people affected by it, but what about the people who weren't under the effect of the spell?" Retorted Willow, "Will they be protected from harm as well?"

Ethan's face quickly paled, "I didn't think of that! The spell was anchored to the bust of Janus in the back."

They found the anchor and Willow cast a thaumic disjunction, ending the spell.

Buffy and Willow found themselves pushed against the walls as Xander suddenly found himself as a giant winged lizard, plastic armor tearing as he grew.

"Well, crap. Hey Wills, you remember any of that mojo? We seem to have a problem."


	2. Chapter 2

Dragon Of The Line

I don't own Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Stargate, or Pathfinder RPG.

"Wait, wait, wait… could you go over that again?"

"Which part of it, G-man? The part where we all became alternate versions of ourselves, or the part where, unlike everyone else, our costumes seemed to stick?"

"The part where you turned into a great big dragon! And why are you so calm about this?!"

"Well, Mr. Giles," responded Willow, not looking up from the amulet she was working on, "I think the transformation may be due to our proximity to the anchor when it was destroyed, as well as the fact that we dressed as alternate versions of ourselves."

"How exactly is Xander's other self a great big lizard?"

"A Dragon, thank you very much! A Solar Dragon, to be precise. As to why I am so calm, its probably the whole dragon physiology/psychology thing. I mean, what kind of person would angst over being turned into a nearly immortal, heavily armed and armored, flying furnace. Someone who isn't a dragon, thats who. I mean, everything seems so much clearer now, things that I had to struggle to understand before, like math or chemistry or anything really, seem so simple. I just know that I am better off now."

"Well, Mr. Giles," Willow began explaining once Xander finished his outburst, finally looking up from her work. "In that other universe magic never got demonized, in fact it took the place of science in our world. Anyway, in the early eighteen hundreds an archaeological dig found an ancient artifact called the Astria Porta, a device that could be used to travel to distant planets in the galaxy. The research team sent through the Astria Porta found itself under attack and only a few of its members managed to make it back to Earth."

"This is a fascinating story, but what does it have to do with Mr. Harris being a dragon?"

"Well, a couple years later the solar system found itself under attack by a race of star gods who called themselves the Goa'uld, who ruled earth as the egyptian gods before being forced out by a Slayer army. Anyway, they found that earth was once again ripe for harvest, and Ra sent a couple Starships to attempt to pacify the population. They were doing heavy damage until a Sorcerer by the name of Dick Wilkins used a ritual to transform himself into a Red Wyrm and managed to destroy the attacking fleet after taking it by surprise. Once he finishing the battle, Wilkins demanded that the earth bow down to him as its supreme ruler, and he was eventually destroyed by an army of mages; his research was then taken to determine how he managed his transformation.

The royal seers determined that only those with a guardian's soul could be trusted with the transformation, and so they searched every year for people who could handle it."

Willow turned back to the work she was doing and continued talking.

"Other Xander was found at the age of four and removed from his abusive family and was fostered by my family; and after determining his affinity being with fire and life he was sent to the solar mana tap to be transformed into a Solar Dragon. We both met Buffy at the Royal Academy of Thaumaturgy, where she was being trained for her future as a Slayer."

Buffy cut in, "Oh yeah! in that other world, with the magic being everywhere and stuff, the war against extraplanar aggressors never went into hiding and so there was none of this 'One girl fighting the forces of hell alone without any help whatsoever' thing. Other Buffy was identified at birth as a possible slayer, and after being activated at the age of ten was being trained to head extermination teams, armed with blessed swords and everything! And Willow, you need to get the stuff together to resurrect Angel!"

"What? Resurrect angel?"

"Yeah, G-man! Other buffy had the hots for some dead flesh too and, what with the whole vampire with a soul thing, Other Willow found a way to exorcise the demon out of him, while simultaneously gluing his soul in place and giving his body a blast of the old 'start breathing again' thing… anyway, I'm all for it!"

"You are?" exclaimed both Willow and Buffy.

"Sure! I mean, seeing how they worked out in the other world, and how my main reason for hating Deadboy was that he's of the Undead persuasion, *cough* and how the whole process is excruciating and I have to be there for the whole thing *cough* I think we should totally do it!"

The three then started discussing the necessary materials, foci, proper circle design, how to properly tap the hellmouth, what time of day would be best for the spell, how to…

"HANG ON! what do you mean, 'properly tap the hellmouth?' you will do no such thing!"

"Don't worry Mr. Giles, in the other world they completely negated the hazards created by the Hellmouths, and channeled the energies they pulled off of it to conduct really power intensive rituals and to make bindings much easier. It's how they maintained their society! The mana being produced by the Earth taps starting to be not enough was what drove the colonization of the other planets in the solar system and the building of the Solar Research System."

"Here you go, Xander, I finished the shapeshift amulet for you

...

The next couple months were filled with furious activity as the three prepared for the ritual, having determined that the best time to hold it would be the dawn of the winter solstice, with the empowered concepts of rebirth and renewal, and the shift from the dark to the light.

Xander moved out of his house, his draconic pride refusing to even think of living in such a low quality, disrespectful household. He probably would have killed his dad if he hadn't left when he did. He ended up crafting a lair in one of the many abandoned warehouses in the present around Sunnydale, filling it with both treasures he found in the vamp's lairs he and Buffy cleared out and with other treasures that he purchased using and liquid assets he found. He also put in a forge so that he and Buffy could keep their artificing up to date, as well as to outfit themselves further for their roles.

There were a few road bumps along the way, like buffy's old acquaintance, Ford, coming and trying to sacrifice Buffy so that he could be turned, which Buffy took care of, or Giles' old Ripper days coming back to haunt him.

Buffy was attacked by a group of assassins, two of whom are killed by Buffy, and one who was discovered by Xander as he was telling Cordelia about his other self's life, and how he and Cory ended up being affianced.

…

Cordelia was rather amazed when she entered Xander's new home, having been asked by Buffy's mom to help him housesit while she was at an art expo; the entire warehouse was filled with stuff: paintings leaned against the walls, which were covered in different posters, and there were glass display cases everywhere, each filled with comic books, novels, games, or movies. It was like some kind of geeky paradise.

"Hey, Dork, you here?" She shouted.

"Back here, Cordy!" Came from the back of the building.

At source of the shout she found Xander in his now natural form recumbent on a pile of change and surrounded by technology, delicately manipulating a computer's mouse and keyboard as he designed something in AutoCAD.

"Ya know, designing a magic circle is so much easier with technology to help a guy out! back in the other world everything was done with paper and a pencil," He answered her inquisitive look.

"What's it for?" She asked.

"Just helping Willow with the ritual. She's a brilliant ritualist, but I've always been better at designing circles than her, so she often asks me to help with that stuff after she has the parameters worked out."

"Wow, since when were you smart, Dork? And what do you mean you've been better, don't you mean the other you has always been better?"

"I'm a dragon, it just comes with the territory, and both of me are me, so why angst over it? Its a dragon thing."

"Whatever, get a move on, we need to get going."

Xander got his stuff and proceeded to follow Cordelia over to the summers' place, talking with her all the way.

"You said we were Affianced in the other world, how could that have possibly have happened?"

"Well, your parents were completely different people in the other world. I mean, they were great parents, always had time for you and everything; they were also identified as possible Guardians, and transformed about forty years before you were born. I mean, they had you super young! They were actually my teachers in the academy in fighting."

"Hang on, you mean my parents selflessly put themselves in danger for the protection of the entire human race? I just can't see that."

"Yeah, surprising, I know! But they both got a full helping of the Dragon's Greed… I mean, they were constantly in hot water over tax evasion, theft, all kinds of stuff. They even hid a full Ha'tak in their home, claiming 'We killed it, so We get to keep it!' do you know how much gold is in one of those things? at least seven tons, just in the armor!

Anyway, other you was a completely different person. For one thing, you were born a dragon, but your parents kept drilling into you that your power was a gift, and with your gifts came responsibilities. I mean, you were still all stuck up, but you were a lot nicer; like you told me, 'We are better than them. They get sick, they get old, they are stuck on that base earth. We will still be around when their great grand children are but distant memories. We are better than them, it is a fact, incontrovertible, so why not be kind? it costs us nothing, and makes them more pliable.' Anyway, we were the same age, and as we were both dragons, you saw us as equals. We got quite close, a real friendship, almost as close a the one I had with Willow, but with a lot less of the Filius and a lot more of the Eros. When we turned fifteen Willows parents and your parents decided it would be a good thing to affiance us."

At that point, as they got near Buffy's house, Xander smelled something foul, like decomposing flesh, and followed it to the house next to Buffy's. The front door was open, and when Xander entered he was jumped by a pile of giant writhing demonic maggots. Which he promptly ate. He turned back to Cordelia, who was giving him a rather grossed out look and looked a bit sheepish as he told her; "sorry, instinct."

...

They had to save Angel from Spike and Drusilla, and take out Buffy's mom's new boyfriend, Ted.

"Hey, Buffy, you know your mom's new boyfriend? He doesn't smell human, more like rotting corpses and synthetical grease."

...

Finally the day of the ritual came, and they revealed their changes to Angel, as well as their plan to return him to life.

"You're a giant red dragon!"

"Dark red with golden highlights, thank you very much! now get your undead ass in the circle so we can relivify it, Deadboy!"

The circle had been drawn in Dragon's Blood, a large ornate crafting calling upon the purifying flames of the sun, as well as focusing its life giving powers. The circle was insulated from the chaotic energies of the hellmouth by a ring of silk, and powered by a freshly built (and rather crude, they had had to rush) mana tap.

They began the ritual an hour before dawn, using Xander's connection to the sun to begin the cleansing, and Angel felt a force seem to clamp down on him, preventing him from leaving the center of the circle. Suddenly he felt like the temperature was rapidly rising, quickly approaching agony, and he started screaming. At this point Buffy had to leave the room, as she knew she couldn't do anything for him, and couldn't stand to see his suffering.

At the half hour mark, the chanting changed and the ritual shifted from one of cleansing to one of healing. Angel felt the pain start to recede, the burning changing to a comforting heat as his blood started to move within his body once more.

At the one hour mark Xander and Willow stopped their chanting just as the sun broke the horizon, and Angel drew his first breath in centuries. He turned to look at the sun, and wondered at the beauty of it, before being caught off guard by a small blonde missile that smashed him right off his feet, quickly mashing herself to his lips and squeezing him for all she was worth.

...

The next day Xander was woken very early by a frantic and panicked Willow.

"Xander! I've been feeding the power from the mana tap into detection wards, you know, habit, and they just tripped!

There's a fleet coming in, xander, Earth is about to be attacked by the Goa'uld!"


	3. Chapter 3

Dragon Of The Line

I don't own Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Stargate, or Pathfinder RPG.

...

"Would destroying this ship damage the other ship as well?"

"I am afraid not, O'Neill, the ships are equipped with protective fields."

O'neill felt his spirits dropping when his eye was caught by a bright object rocketing out of the Earth's atmosphere, directly towards Apophis's mothership, releasing beams of plasma as it flew, and couldn't stop staring at it until finally it came close enough to resolve.

"I don't believe this, what the hell?! is that a freaking dragon?!"

"It would appear so, O'Neill, You did not tell me that your planet possessed such formidable defences."

"We don't! I have no freaking clue what that is! I mean, Dragons just don't freaking exist!" spluttered O'Neill.

Teal'c's only response to that was to turn towards him and raise an eyebrow.

"Well, ok, i guess they do… But not on earth! i mean, that things got to be at least ten meters long, where would it even hide?"

Just then a blast from Apophis's mothership streaked out and struck the dragon, only to be shrugged off as if it were nothing.

"It's not just a dragon, it's a freaking plasma proof dragon! Where the hell did it even come from?!" Exclaimed O'Neill.

The dragon finally wore a hole in the shields of the mothership and dove through, heading directly for the bridge, smashing through and vanishing from sight.

After that SG-1 was distracted by a renewed assault on the doors of the bridge.

...

Xander, Willow strapped to his back, detonated the power core of the Goa'uld ship with a mighty breath, Willow protected from its detonation by his bulk. Xander spread his wings and allowed the force from the detonation to carry himself towards the second ship.

He was a bit concerned, though. Why had the second ship not put up its shields yet?

As he approached the other ship Xander saw a flash of bright light emanate from the bridge, and figures dressed in black outfits and military harnesses with rifles fall to the ground.

Xander focused and allowed his growth spell to dissipate, then turned to Willow.

"Hey wills, It looks like there are some humans in there. Earth humans! With guns and everything! We better find out how they got here!"

Xander forced his way through the force field in the window (designed to keep the air in, not to keep a dragon out), catching the incoming Jafa off guard and rapidly turning them into a mangled mess covering the walls, floor, and ceiling. The jaffa tried to fight back, but their plasma staffs did exactly nothing to Xander's star-bathing bulk, and they eventually stopped trying to enter the bridge.

Xander turned back to the unconscious soldiers and focused on the healing energies he could call forth, allowing them to rush forth around him.

...

O'Neill woke with a start. He felt good. No, he felt great! All those aches and pains from old, poorly healed, wounds were gone. He opened his eyes and almost felt his heart stop.

"Hey, I see you're awake. Want to tell me what a group of commandos are doing on a Goa'uld mothership?"

"Holy shit! Dragon!" O'Neill furrowed his brow, "you know, you look a lot smaller up close."

The dragon gave him a deadpan look before it snorted, then fell over in a gale of laughter.

O'neill felt himself grin and then start chuckling along with the dragon. It may be a giant plasma spitting lizard, but at least it had a sense of humor.

"Heha, *chuckle* smaller up close, heh, that was great! But anyway, what's the what? how'd you guys get up here? Who are you guys anyway? Wait a minute. I recognize you! You're Jack O'Neill, you were my hero back home. You look so old. I bet you got here as part of some sort of 'protect the earth' plan or something, Am I right? I'm right, aren't I. This is so cool!"

"Umm, Xander… I think you should calm down," came a timid voice from behind the DRAGON!

"Right, uhm, *cough* so?"

O'Neill stood up.

"I'm Colonel Jack O'Neill, SG-1 of the S.G.C. and this is my team; Captain Samantha Carter, Doctor Daniel Jackson, and Teal'c. We came here to prevent an invasion of earth by the Goa'uld Apophis. He was on the Ha'tak you destroyed. Thanks for not destroying this one, by the way. And you are?"

The dragon snapped up into attention.

"Cadet Alexander Rosenberg, Sol Defence Flight."

Alexander moved aside to reveal a mousey redhead girl in black silk robes with a rich purple trim, her eyes dripping scintillating flames.

"And this is Archmage Willow rosenberg, of the Royal Academy of Thaumaturgy. uhm, one sec."

Alexander turned to Willow, "hey Wills, did you bring an extra set of robes?"

Willow rolled her eyes and gestured while speaking a phrase in a guttural sounding tongue and then pulled a golden robe out of thin air, which she handed to him.

"Honestly Xander, you never remember to bring an outfit!"

Willow noticed the gawking from sg-1 and her face lit up with a furious blush as she shrank back, horribly embarrassed at the attention.

The commando's attention quickly swiveled back to Xander when his form shimmered, and then shrunk, becoming that of a teenaged human male, with black hair and black eyes, and completely naked save for what looked like dog tags. Xander quickly shrugged on the robe and belted it up.

"Wait, Sol Defence Flight? you mean there are more of you? Can you help us fight the Goa'uld?" Questioned O'Neill after he had shaken off the sudden nudity and gotten back to more important things.

"Its just us, unfortunately. We actually come from an alternate earth where magic was never abandoned for science. We got imprinted on our local selves 'cause of a rogue chaos mage. We can, however, help with the fight; we'd just need to negotiate terms with whoever is in charge."

O'Neill's response was cut off by a shout from the door.

"O'Neill, you did not tell me that earth had such formidable guardians. It looks like my planning was not needed!"

"Bra'tac, my man! How did you get here?"

"I had a plan to help in the defence of the Tau'ri, But it looks like it will not be needed. This is a great thing! I did not relish the thought of how many of my brothers would be lost in such an attempt."

…

Eventually Carter figured out the control system for the Ha'tak and they returned to Earth, only to realize that they had no way to contact the SGC. While trying to figure out a way to get in touch with earth a missile was launched in their direction, but the shields easily absorbed the nukes sent their way.

Finally Willow interjected; "couldn't we patch into a telecom satellite?"

Carter smacked her forehead, "so simple! Why didn't I think of that!"

They tapped into the military communications net and got in touch with the commander-in-chief.

…

*ring* *ring*

"Yes?"

"Mr. President! This is Colonel O'Neill of the S.G.C, currently aboard the Ha'Tak in orbit around the Earth. Me and my team would greatly appreciate it if you called off the nukes so we could send a ship down."

"You managed to catch one of those ships for the United States?"

"Afraid not, sir. We may have discovered some amazing allies in the war against the Goa'uld, though! We were about to be overrun by Jaffa when they destroyed the other Ha'tak and came to our rescue. Without them the earth would already be bowing down to those slimy snakes!"

"And who are these mysterious new allies?"

"I'm afraid you wouldn't believe me if I told you, sir. You will have to meet them."


End file.
